Equivalence test (TOST)

Equivalence test (TOST) is part of:

  • Pro Core statistical software

  • System configuration

    • Windows:
      • Versions: 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7
      • Excel: 97 and later
      • Processor: 32 or 64 bits
      • Hard disk: 150 Mb
    • Mac OS X:
      • OS: OS X
      • Excel: X, 2004 and 2011
      • Hard disk: 150Mb.

Benefits

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    Modular XLSTAT is a modular product. XLSTAT-Pro is a core statistical module of XLSTAT which includes all the mainstream functionalities in statistics and multivariate analysis. More advanced features contained in add-on modules can be added for specific applications. This way you can adapt the software to your needs making the software more cost-efficient.
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Unlike classical hypothesis testing, equivalence tests are used to validate the fact that a difference is in a given interval.

This type of test is used primarily to validate bioequivalence. When we want to show the equivalence of two drugs, classical hypothesis testing does not apply, we will use equivalence testing which will validate the equivalence between the two drugs.
In a classical hypothesis test, we try to reject the null hypothesis of equality. As part of an equivalence test, we try to validate the equivalence between two samples. The TOST (two one-sided test) is a test of equivalence that is based on the classical t test used to test the hypothesis of equality between two means.

So we will have two samples, a theoretical difference between the means as well as a range within which we can say that the sample means are equivalent.
The test is known as parametric because the assumption is made that the samples are normally distributed. This hypothesis could be tested using normality tests.
The TOST test uses Student's test to check the equivalence between the means of two samples. A detailed description of such tests can be found in the chapter dedicated to t tests.

XLSTAT offers two equivalent methods to test equivalence using the TOST test.

These two tests are similar and should give similar results. They were introduced by Schuirman's (1987).

Tutorials